Great stuff Rick, thank for posting this. His book on the details of evolution was one of the most important and humbling books I read this year. Humbling because I thought I knew so much more than I did on the many overlapping proofs that demonstrate it as a scientific fact. I didn't realize exactly how scientist measure time and how many ways they do it to be sure. I didn't realize that the thoery would be the same without a single fossil found. It is not based on those discoveries although they are consistent. I highly recommend it.
Here is one of the brilliantly simple ways to demonstrate how replication of DNA causes mutations, and how far it can go. I would love to do this in schools. http://www.wimp.com/demonstrateevolution/ --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <rick@...> wrote: > > Dawkins Destroys Perry on Evolution > > We all know Rick Perry is full of it with his anti-science beliefs. But a > smackdown from Richard Dawkins on the subject of said beliefs has a > particularly satisfying highbrow but low-blow quality to it. He delivered > such a Smackdown to Perry in the course of a Q and A in the Washington > Post's On Faith column. > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/attention-governor-perry- > evolution-is-a-fact/2011/08/23/gIQAuIFUYJ_blog.html> > > Dawkins said that while a candidate's views on evolution are not paramount, > they're indicative of his or her ability to understand science and general > levels of educational literacy. He also had harsh words for the valuation of > ignorance among the Republican electorate. > > Here are some choice excerpts: > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/attention-governor-perry- > evolution-is-a-fact/2011/08/23/gIQAuIFUYJ_blog.html> > > There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be > found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown > in high office. What is unusual about today's Republican party (I disavow > the ridiculous 'GOP' nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore > Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered 'grand') is this: > In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally > rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today's > Republican Party 'in spite of' is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack > of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. > Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican > voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like > themselves over someone actually qualified for the job. > > *** > > A politician's attitude to evolution is perhaps not directly important in > itself. It can have unfortunate consequences on education and science policy > but, compared to Perry's and the Tea Party's pronouncements on other topics > such as economics, taxation, history and sexual politics, their ignorance of > evolutionary science might be overlooked. Except that a politician's > attitude to evolution, however peripheral it might seem, is a surprisingly > apposite litmus test of more general inadequacy. This is because unlike, > say, string theory where scientific opinion is genuinely divided, there is > about the fact of evolution no doubt at all. Evolution is a fact, as > securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful > ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as > well. Evolution is not some recondite backwater of science, ignorance of > which would be pardonable. It is the stunningly simple but elegant > explanation of our very existence and the existence of every living creature > on the planet. Thanks to Darwin, we now understand why we are here and why > we are the way we are. You cannot be ignorant of evolution and be a > cultivated and adequate citizen of today. > > I'd love to see Dawkins debate Perry on live TV, wouldn't you? >
